SLUG
THRUSH FOX| ECOLOGY |
Food chain Food
web Balance of nature
Using a key Pond Habitat
Studying plants and animals in their habitat is a science known as ECOLOGY
Studying a Habitat
The habitat of an animal or plant is the type of place it choses to make its home
Examples of habitats: Pond, Garden, Wood, Meadow
The habitat of an animal needs to provide a place to make its home and breed, the correct food, shelter from the weather and protection from its enemies.
FOOD:
Plants make their own food by a process called photosynthesiss.
Thiis is when they make food
from simple chemicals around them, (carbon dioxide from
the air and water from the soil).
The energy to do this comes from the sun.
Without sunlight all plants would die
Animals rely on eating plants or other animals for their food.
Without plants all life on this planet would die.
FOOD CHAIN
A food chain is a list of organisms to show a simple feeding pattern within a habitat
eg CABBAGE LEAF SLUG
THRUSH FOX
This means that the cabbage is eaten by the slug ....
which is eaten by the thrush.
.. which is eaten by the fox.
The arrows shows the transfer of food energy from one organism to the next.
The cabbage leaf gets its energy from the sun
The first organism in a food chain is called a PRODUCER and is always a
PLANT
All other
organisms in the food chain are CONSUMERS
The animal at the top of the food chain is often a PREDATOR and is called a top carnivore
PRODUCER
PRIMARY CONSUMER
SECONDARY CONSUMER
The animals which eat the plant are called HERBIVORES
The animals which eat other animals are called CARNIVORES
example:
a SLUG is a HERBIVORE
a FOX is a CARNIVORE
Animals tha hunt for their food are PREDATORS
Animals that are being hunted are the PREY
example:
When a thrush eats a snail the thrush is a predator and the snail is the prey
Food Web
In any habitat there will be several food chains combined together to form a
FOOD WEB.
A food web from a garden
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Place your mouse over each organism to see its position in the food web.
Decomposers
Decomposers (small animals that live in the soil, worms,
beetles etc) help recycle the dead food and so provide simple chemicals for the plants to use again.
The most useful decomposers are the FUNGI and BACTERIA which help the dead plants and animals rot
The balance of
nature
Life in any habitat is a delicate balance.
Changing the numbers of one animal or plant can alter that balance.
Example Answer Slugs eat the lettuce plants so more slugs will mean less lettuce plants.
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The different animals and plants in a habitat can be identified using a key
Further resources
Build your own food web An interactive site showing several habitats
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